I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of data processing and to computerized systems and methods for supply chain management. More particularly, the invention relates to computerized systems and methods for automated parallelization of a transport load builder in a supply chain environment.
II. Background Information
In a supply chain management (SCM) environment, Supply Network Planning (SNP) typically integrates the purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, and transportation of products so that comprehensive tactical planning and sourcing decisions can be simulated and implemented on the basis of a single, global consistent model. SNP, which may be implemented using software or computerized applications, uses advanced optimization techniques, based on constraints and penalties, to plan product flow along the supply chain. The result is optimal purchasing, production, and distribution decisions, reduced-order fulfillment times and inventory levels, and improved customer service.
Starting from a demand plan, SNP determines a permissible short-to medium-term plan for fulfilling the estimated sales volumes. This plan covers both the quantities that must be transported between locations (for example, a distribution center to a customer or a production plant to a distribution center), and the quantities to be produced and procured. When making a recommendation, SNP may compare all logistical activities to the available capacity.
Within SNP, a transport load builder (TLB) application is often provided that groups transport loads for various means of transport while ensuring that the capacity of the means of transport is utilized as much as possible. A TLB may group deployment stock transfers or replenishment orders that were generated for individual products in previous planning runs into TLB shipments for several products. A TLB application may create a transport load for one or more products from a source location to a destination location.
Currently, technology is available to help create transport loads for products within a supply chain environment. However, existing TLB applications suffer from several drawbacks. One problem is that conventional TLB applications only create one transport load at a time for a single transportation lane. As a result, a TLB application may have to run several times in order to create several transport loads. This can lead to very long processing or run times as the transport loads are created successively.
Furthermore, in some existing TLB applications, a user may manually group the transportation lanes into various packages and then start a TLB process for each of the packages at the same time. However, this often leads to severe errors in distribution. For example, if two TLB processes were started for two packages, and each package contained the same transportation lane, a lockup would occur with the processes if the quantity of the transportation lanes in the packages exceeded the available quantity of the transportation lanes.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems and methods for automatically and more efficiently processing TLB runs, such as TLB runs in a supply chain environment.